Thursday, 28 March 2013

Facing the Climate at the Oliewenhuis Museum in Bloemfontein: 11 April - 9 June 2013

Facing the Climate installation view - with Norman Catherine in the foreground.


The Oliewenhuis staging of Facing the Climate (co-curated with the Oliewenhuis curator Ester le Roux, the exhibitions officer, Karen Marais, and the education officer, Yolande Els), installed the collection of Swedish and South African cartoonists'/illustrators' artworks in conversation, with artworks from the Oliewenhuis art collection. Artworks chosen for this complementary exhibition (entitled Match) were playful and satirical in theme and method, displaying elements such as caricature, graphic mark-making and poignant social critique. One of the ideas that arose from the walkabout (and a comment that had been raised at previous exhibitions) was that the climate cartoons themselves tell us little about the science of such colossal global narratives; rather they give us pause to reflect on the human social and political ills that contribute to the planet's homeostasis, and our own small but significant footprint on the earth.




Facing the Climate installation view with Norman Catherine sculpture. 
Facing the Climate installation view of cartoons with Sefako Khoalibe with Norman Catherine sculptures. 

Match installation view with Norman Catherine, Lucas Sithole, and Jacques
Fuller sculptures. 










Facing the Climate installation view with Lucas Sithole and Norman Catherine
 sculptures. 









































Match installation view with artworks by Lucas Sithole, Diane Victor, Manfred Zille, Claudette Schreuders, Dumile Feni, Conrad Botes, and Norman Catherine. 
Manfred Zille, Untitled (Three Creatures), 1912. Woodcut print on Chinese paper.

Claudette Schreuders, Twins, 2005. Six colour chin collie lithograph.

Conrad Botes, Forensic Theater - Male Hysteria, 2004. Acrylic and screen-printing on canvas.

Norman Catherine print.

Dumile Feni, School, 1966. Ball point sketches.
Match installation view with artworks by Jacques Fuller, Stanley Pinker, and Nyoni Vulindlelo.
Jacques Fuller, Waterwyser (detail), 1999. Welded red and yellow copper.

Stanley Pinker, Modern Madonna (detail), 
1993. Oil on canvas on board.

Nyoni Vulindlelo, The Honourable Mr M, 2011. Linocut.


Match installation view with artworks by Anton Kannemeyer, David Brown, and Wayne Barker.
David Brown sculpture (bronze).


Anton Kannemeyer, J is for Jack Russel (detail), 2006.
Five colour lithograph.

Anton Kannemeyer, Say! If you speak English ... (detail), 2008. Five colour lithograph.


Facing the Climate installation view of Zapiro and Tony Grogan cartoons with Sefako Khoalibe's sculpture entitled, Mosadi, 2000. Painted wood. 

Zapiro, Untitled (Evolution). Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.


Zapiro, Untitled (COP 17 – The Scream). Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.


Zapiro, Untitled (COP 17). Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.

Tony Grogan, Evolution of man. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.

Facing the Climate installation view of Ree Treweek and Riber Hansen's cartoons with Sefako Khoalibe's sculpture entitled, Mosadi (2000). 


Ree Treweek, Untitled. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.


Ree Treweek, Migration. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.

Riber Hansson, Putin’s gas cathedral. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.
Facing the Climate installation view of Karin Sunvisson's cartoons/illustrations with Sefako Khoalibe's sculpture entitled, Mosadi (2000). 

Karin Sunvisson, Bad times ahead. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.



Karin Sunvisson, Welcome to Copenhagen. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.

Karin Sunvisson, All those lies. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.

Facing the Climate installation view with cartoons by Magnus Bard and Sifiso Yalo.

Sifiso Yalo, Polar ark. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.



Magnus Bard, Snow monitor. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper.


Facing the Climate installation view with Braam Kruger oil painting.

Braam Kruger, Forthcoming Attraction: Rhenosterjag to Rhenosterkop, 1985. Oil on board.
Facing the Climate installation view with Nhlanhla Xaba oil painting.








Nhlanhla Xaba, Endangered Pools, 1998. Oil on canvas.


































































































Tony Grogan, Human footprint. Digital print on Litho Realistic 270 gsm paper

































The Facing the Climate exhibition at the Oliewenhuis Museum was accompanied by a cartooning workshop on the theme of 'facing the climate' to be held over two days on Friday, 19 April 2013 @ 14:00pm, and Saturday, 20 April 2013 @ 09:00am:

This interactive event performed the communicative and cathartic potential of cartoons and illustrations. These critical and humorous visual devices have the potential to bring viewers and makers into more intimate and understandable relations with the titanic narratives of climate change.

Bloemfontein based designer, Yolandi Burger, who is passionate about sustainable development and the role of art and design in this project, lead the Facing the Climate cartooning workshop at the Oliewenhuis museum. Yolandi is a lecturer and researcher in Higher Education and holds a master’s degree in Design, and an Advanced Diploma in Higher Education from the University of the Free State. She is an experienced designer and illustrator who facilitates storyboarding and illustrative techniques at the Midrand Graduate Institute’s Bloemfontein Campus.

The programme for the workshop followed a two day structure beginning on Friday, 19 April 2013 @ 14:00pm. Participants were introduced to climate change contexts; theory of cartooning and script writing; utilising camera angles; conveying emotion and affect through colour, mark, and the representation of light. During this first session participants were also introduced to examples of cartooning techniques and styles; and engaged in a discussion of climate-orientated cartoons on the Facing the Climate exhibition.

The Saturday, 20 April 2013 (09:00am) session focused on brainstorming and developing scripts/storylines; the presentation of ideas within the workshop group; rough sketching and feedback; and the commencement of final illustrations; participants then presented their cartoons on climate change for discussion with the facilitator and workshop participants.

The Facing the Climate cartoon workshop was free, and was supported by the Swedish Embassy and the Oliewenhuis Museum. 

Here follow some fantastic images made by students at the workshop - the images were mounted and exhibited at the Museum as an adjunctive to the exhibition:











































Facing the Climate opened its run at Michaelis Galleries on 28 September 2012 as part of the GIPCA Hot Water Symposium, before traveling to NIROXprojects in Johannesburg for exhibition from 28 October19 November. It’s staging at the Oliewenhuis Museum in Bloemfontein from 11 April9 June 2013 represented the final presentation of this consciousness-raising visual offering. The exhibition opened on the 11th April 2013 at 19:00pm, preceded by an informal walkabout with the curator at 18:00pm. 

Facing the Climate is part of a concerted drive by the Swedish Institute, to promote critical sustainable development under the heading ‘Facing the Future – Sustainability the Swedish Way’. The impetus behind this began in December 2009 in relation to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, when a group of 25 Nordic newspaper cartoonists provided some amusing and alarming reflections on climate change. To demonstrate Sweden’s active involvement in this area, the Swedish Institute developed the digital climate exhibition, Facing the Climate in collaboration with the Swedish cartoonists/illustrators Magnus Bard, Helena Lindholm and Riber Hansson. For this exhibition, they are joined by Love Antell and Karin Sunvisson in commenting on the global climate dilemma. The South African cartoonists/illustrators involved in this project are Tony Grogan, Wilson Mgobhozi, Ree Treweek, Sifiso Yalo and Zapiro.


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